[Note from BenIndy: Registration appears to be required for this event, and it looks like tickets are going quickly. Sign up now if you’d like to join. After you sign up to join the exciting launch of Solano Together, check out its first response to California Forever’s 83-page initiative HERE (the initiative text itself is HERE). Sign up to support or learn more about Solano Together HERE. Some images shown below are not original to the Solano Together news release and were added by BenIndy.]
Clicking the image will redirect you to the page for this event where you can register. Another link to the registration page is below.
Bringing Solano Together – Coalition Launch
Join us in celebrating the official launch of the Solano Together Coalition, on February 4, at 12:00 pm. The event will be held at the Joseph A. Nelson Community Center located on Village Drive in Suisun City.
Come meet the coalition, break bread with neighbors, and hear from local leaders about why NOW is the time to bring Solano Together to fight for our collective future. We welcome all people from all backgrounds—whether you’re already part of the coalition, or still trying to figure out what’s going on, this is a perfect opportunity to find out more, connect with our member organizations, and at the very least, have a fun-filled afternoon!
Coalition supporters such as the Mayor Pro-Tem of Suisun City, Princess Washington, Congressman John Garamendi, Solano Farm Bureau President Will Brazelton, and more will address the audience and share their concerns about California Forever’s sprawl development plans and their vision for Solano County.
This event event is FREE and open to the public but capacity is limited. Registration is required.
The Vallejo Times-Herald, the Vacaville Reporter, and now, in a two-page spread, the New York Times have done a good job reporting on the strong-arm tactics of Jan Sramek and a who’s who of billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalists to buy huge chunks of Solano County and change its character — tactics U.S. Rep. John Garamendi has called “mobster techniques.”
Flannery Associates, the tech brothers holding company for California Forever, has been secretly buying farmland between Rio Vista and Fairfield for six years to build, it claims, a model city of 50 to 200,000 — a sort of Villages North or, as Garamendi put it, Disneyland.
At a Rio Vista press conference last Wednesday, to which only supporters were granted entrance, Sramek announced a proposal full of pie-in-the sky promises — lacking any concrete detail — that it intends to get on the November ballot as an initiative. Having already spent close to a $1 billion on its land purchases, you can count on Flannery spending huge amounts to secure the 18,500 signatures it needs to get the ballot initiative approved. It has already blanketed the county with slick brochures, billboards, and contact offices. Typical of his cocky, in-your-face stance with local residents and officials, Sramek told those at Wednesday’s meeting, “We’re going to spend as much as we need to win” and “I am going to make this happen no matter what.” [Emph. added by BenIndy.]
Despite the reporting to date, major questions remain unanswered. What, for example, are the true plans of this venture capitalist initiative? Have the tech brothers really thrown millions into this project to solve San Francisco’s housing shortage by infill in Solano County? If you believe that, I’ve got a nice bridge to sell.
And, if in fact they are actually so altruistic, why begin this in secret. Why didn’t they begin by asking county residents: “Do you need more affordable housing? If so, where?” Why not begin infilling existing cities like Vallejo and Fairfield as envisaged by the county’s slow growth plan?
What sorts of industries will be brought into Flannery’s new empire — far greater than the new city’s footprint — to provide the “good jobs” for the new residents? Why would it not make more sense to contribute to the clean energy development of Mare Island?
What spade work has been done to ensure adequate public services — police, fire, schools? Or is California Forever to be a private company town like Spreckels in the Salinas Valley?
And how about water? Per reporting in the Times-Herald and Reporter, Mr. Sramek claims that there are parties in Northern California looking to sell water and that California Forever is already in conversation with them. Oh? Who are these “parties”? From what will the water be diverted? Farms? Bottom line, California Forever is but the latest in a long line of big money hustlers swooping into town confident they can convince people they see as job-hungry country bumpkins to buy into another destructive pig-in-a-poke.
Remember State Farm, Bechtel/Shell’s LNG plant, and that concrete plant on Vallejo’s waterfront? [Note from BenIndy: Read more about that concrete plant here.]
Let’s show them that we’re a little more sophisticated and possessed of a lot more dignity and self-respect than they can imagine. Joining the burgeoning opposition at www.solanotogether.org, let’s show Mr. Sramek that we will do whatever it takes to make sure he does not win.
[Note from BenIndy: Please bear with us for posting more than usual but Solano Together has responded to the initiative and map released by California Forever and it’s worth your time to see what they have to say. Once again, you can check out California Forever’s full, 83-page initiative text HERE. Sign up to learn more about Solano Together HERE. Images shown below are not original to the Solano Together news release and were added by BenIndy.]
Click the image to enlarge. A map of where California Forever plans on putting its new city in Solano County, right between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista. | California Forever / Handout via SFGate.
SUISUN CITY – The Solano Together coalition strongly opposes California Forever’s plans for a sprawling new development in rural Solano County announced this Wednesday. After years of secrecy, months of public controversy, and four months of rushed community engagement, Flannery Associates shared initial glimpses of their new proposed community in Southeastern Solano County.
For Solano Together, the details revealed today did not come as a surprise: California Forever continues to be a senseless sprawl development in a remote, undeveloped part of Solano County. These types of projects divert much needed public and private resources away from cities and residents, leaving existing infrastructure to degrade and residents to suffer.
Flannery Associates are going for the “christmas tree” approach for the proposal, trying to sprinkle financial benefits to specific interest groups around the County in a way that distracts from the negative impact of the proposal on water, county resources, traffic, and taxpayers in existing cities.
Jobs: We’ve seen countless development proposals adopted by cities around the region with promises for jobs, only later to go back to ask for modifications in the proposal based on a change in market conditions. And we also know from experience that nearby cities are often in direct competition for companies and services that do want to locate in an area. Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville have all invested significant resources in attracting new jobs to their community. Flannery’s incentives to lure those jobs away from the population centers of the county to this new development will only harm our communities and reduce opportunities for existing residents. Based on this track record, the idea of 15,000 new jobs in this area is an empty promise.
Taxpayer Money: The plan purports to be a new approach to development, but its physical location—far away from jobs, services, and infrastructure—points to more of the same, investing scarce public funds in expanding infrastructure rather than investing in improvements for long-time residents. Flannery Associates’ proposal spins their small investment in infrastructure upgrades, such as roads and water pipes, as a huge benefit to the community, when the project relies on millions of dollars of public investment for new roads, sewer and water, and schools, funds that will need to be diverted from other priorities.
Solano Together members waved signs at the California Forever Benicia Town Hall on December 18, 2023. | BenIndy.
What Solano Together Coalition supporters are saying:
“Buying up farmland at low prices and rezoning for housing development has been a quick way to make a buck for decades in California. The plans we’ve seen fly in the face of decades of thoughtful planning and action that was first set into motion to protect Solano’s cherished agricultural industries. Developing highly productive ranch lands into urban uses cannot be undone. We cannot continue to allow developers to put food security, long-term sustainability, and livelihoods on the line in exchange for short-term profits.”—Solano Farm Bureau.
“California Forever has no real plans for public transportation or transit. This development is going to clog our streets, highways, and bridges. It will make our climate worse by paving over farmlands—all while making Solano residents pay the cost”—Duane Kromm, member of the Orderly Growth Committee and former Solano County Board Supervisor.
“California Forever’s proposed plans are a detriment to wildlife, native plant life, and water resources that our ecology and communities depend on. We need to protect Solano County’s open space now and for the future. You don’t need to be an environmentalist to ask: ‘What sort of world are we going to leave our future generations?’”—Princess Washington, Mayor Pro-Tem of Suisun City & Chair of the Sierra Club of Solano County.
“Sprawling developments such as California Forever don’t just permanently destroy nature, habitat for wildlife, and farm and ranchland. These developments also divert much needed public and private resources away from cities and residents. Instead of abandoning our existing cities for something shiny and new, we believe the truly visionary approach would be to make transformative investments in them, improving the lives for both current and future residents.”—Sadie Wilson, Director of Planning and Research at Greenbelt Alliance.
“Flannery Associates’ plans to take surface water from the Sacramento River and/or pump groundwater from the Solano subbasin to support a whole new city would further stress critical water resources in Solano County and the Delta, and threaten to undo recent progress made to manage water resources sustainably and responsibly for future generations.”—Osha Meserve, Lawyer specializing in water and environmental impacts.
“I see nothing in the plans that protects Travis Air Force Base. California Forever’s promises mean nothing if Travis is forced to close due to housing encroachment, glare from 10,000 acres of solar farms, and noise complaints from new residents where sheep now graze. In fact, they aren’t building a city, they’re sprawling housing over 18,000 acres without legally creating a city. That could very well endanger Travis’ mission.”—Catherine Moy, Mayor of Fairfield
Solano Together’s top priorities are to drive growth, development, and economic investment into the county’s existing cities and protect the invaluable agricultural and environmental resources that are central to our community and industries. California Forever fails to do that by doubling down on a pattern of sprawl development that endangers the livelihoods of the agricultural community and taxes Solano’s crucial natural resources such as water, land, habitats, and ecosystems.
BenIndy.
Learn more about Solano Together here. For more information, contact: Daniela Ades, dades@greenbelt.org, 1-415-792-9226
[Note from BenIndy: Lots to look at and start unpacking here. First, we have our first map of the new town proposed by California Forever (see headline image) and a population goal for the first wave of new settler-occupiers – 50,000 (with room to expand to 400,000). Second, we now know what the ballot initiative will be called and how many signatures will be required to put it on the ballot: getting the East Solano Homes, Jones, And Clean Energy Initiative on the November ballot will require 13,000 signatures from Solano voters. Third, they’re launching with a plan to offer $400 million to Solano residents to help with down payments on homes in this new city. Not mentioned in this article are the $200 million California Forever is planning to invest in Solano cities (including Benicia) to revitalize downtown areas, and a laundry list of various “guarantee” initiatives, including the Solano Jobs Guarantee, Green Solano Guarantee, Water Guarantee, Transportation Guarantee, Schools Guarantee, Smart Growth Guarantee, Taxpayer Guarantee … Phew. Check out the full, 83-page initiative text HERE.]
Click the image to enlarge. A map of where California Forever plans on putting its new city in Solano County, right between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista. | California Forever / Handout via SFGate.
The new proposed city in Solano County finally has a map. Along with the map, California Forever, the group backing the project, is promising a utopia of affordable homes, world-leading technology and efficient public transit.
On Wednesday, California Forever said it is officially filing the East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative with the Solano County Registrar of Voters. [Emph. added by BenIndy.] If the group can secure more than 13,000 signatures from Solano County voters, the measure will go before voters this November.
The group has been criticized for its secrecy. Last year, news broke that a shadowy group called Flannery Associates was buying up tens of thousands of acres of land in rural Solano County. Within a decade, they’d quietly become the biggest landowner in the county. Local politicians demanded an investigation into the group amid concerns it was a national security threat to have an unnamed landowner snatching up plots near Travis Air Force Base.
In August, a group of tech billionaires was revealed as the backers of the land grab. Among them are philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. They launched the California Forever name at that time, installing former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek as its CEO.
Farmland and wind farms in the background in rural Solano County. | Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP.
Since then, California Forever has done a PR blitz in Solano County, sending out thousands of surveys to residents, holding town halls and opening offices in several towns. The ambitious plan has been met with skepticism, especially around concerns that traffic congestion is already a constant problem on Interstate 80 between Fairfield and Dixon. The city is being planned to start with 50,000 residents but eventually could accommodate 400,000. The map shows the new city would be nestled between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista.
“This is a pipe dream,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, who was furious with backers for their secrecy about property close to a U.S. Air Force base. He said the proposed development, which he also was briefed on, makes no sense “in the middle of areas surrounded by wind farms, gas fields, endangered species, no water, no sanitation system and no road system let alone a highway system.”
California Forever’s initiative boldly claims the new city will be “one of the most sustainable communities in the world.” Its 18,600 acres will include 4,000 acres of “parks, trails, urban ecological habitat, community gardens, and other types of open space.” Neighborhoods will be grouped around schools, shops and restaurants, with an emphasis on walkability. Previous renderings released by the group show Manhattan-like row houses and Mediterranean-style vistas.
People find seats as they get more information on the new California Forever proposed development off Highway 12 near Rio Vista during a town hall meeting on Thursday. | Chris Riley / Times-Herald.
California Forever said it will be distributing $400 million to Solano County residents who need help making a down payment, with priority given to “working families, teachers, nurses, police and firefighters and construction workers.” Its promotional materials do not yet list how much homes will cost.
Likely in direct response to the many fears about an unknown group surrounding Travis AFB, the plan also says it will designate a “Travis Security Zone” that doubles the “buffer” around the base from about 8,000 acres to 15,000 acres.
If the measure goes to Solano County voters in November, California Forever needs them to overturn protections put in place in 1984 to keep agricultural land from being turned into urban space. If approved, the plan would then undergo two years of environmental review.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More about California Forever on the Benicia Independent:
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